I'm not sure if any of you have seen the following article regarding
the possible effects of glycerin (glycerine, glycol, vegetable glycol)
on Psoriasis - I found it very interesting given that I use a spray
solution of 1 part glycerin to 10 parts distilled water as an
all-over-body moisturiser, as I spend a lot of time in the surf.

Glycerin is found in the majority of moisturisers - However, to lessen
the chance of having a reaction to any of the other ingredients found
in moisturisers, I mix my own solution of glycerin & distilled water -
Glycerin is very cheap to buy & is usually available in large food
stores & chemists (US drugstores?)- I store the solution in a plastic
garden spray atomiser that can be adjusted to deliver a fine mist
spray & I leave it to dry on my body after I've showered.

At present I'm Psoriasis symptom free, which I put down to the
dairy-free diet that I'm on - However, I do also use the glycerin
spray on a daily basis, so perhaps the spray may also be playing its
part in keeping my Psoriasis symptoms at bay.

Anyway, for your interest, here is the article:

Glycerin May Help Skin Disease, Study Finds
Toni Baker
December 2003

Glycerin, commonly found in skin care products because it attracts
water and helps skin look better, may have the****utic value as well,
according to researchers at the Medical College of Ge****a.

Glycerin, or glycerol, is a natural alcohol and water attractor that's
been used in skin care products for centuries, says Dr. Wendy
Bollinger Bollag, cell physiologist.

In research published in the December issue of The Journal of
Investigative Dermatology, she and co-author Dr. Xiangjian Zheng, who
worked as a graduate student in her lab and is now a postdoctoral
fellow at Vanderbilt University, show that glycerol also makes skin
look and function better by helping skin cells mature properly.

"This is a pretty novel hypothesis that is really quite in its
infancy," Dr. Bollag says of the finding that glycerol works as a
signal to help direct skin cells through their four normal stages of
maturity. In the endless cycle of skin-cell production, the youngest
cells move up from the deepest layer and switch from replicating as
their main function to eventually becoming mature surface cells that
spit out lipids to help form the skin's protective barrier before they
die.

The researchers' findings about the signaling function of glycerol
means the readily available fluid, found in its pure state on grocery
store shelves and as a component of many other products, may help
people with diseases such as psoriasis and non-melanoma skin cancers,
that result from abnormal proliferation and maturation of skin cells,
and may augment wound-healing.

The researchers found glycerol's role in skin cell maturation while
studying phospholipase D, an enzyme that converts fats or lipids in
the external, protective cell membrane to cell signals. Phospholipids
are fats found throughout the body that make up much of the plasma
membrane lipid bilayer that encases each cell and helps keep it from
mixing with other cells. All cells have this layer and skin cells
secrete extra lipids which help provide an additional barrier. "Think
about it," Dr. Bollag says. "If there was not some sort of barrier,
when you took a bath, all the water would go into you and you would
blow up like a balloon."

Knowing that phospholipase D can use alcohols, such as ethyl alcohol,
Drs. Bollag and Zheng wondered what it would do with glycerol, a
physiological alcohol used to synthesize fat and subsequently released
during exercise as fat fuels physical exertion.

What they found is that when phospholipase D pairs with glycerol, it
produces a distinctive signal that directs skin cell maturation, Dr.
Zheng says.

They found that, despite its name, a channel called aquaporin 3, which
is expressed in skin cells and allows only certain molecules through,
is not particularly good at transporting water but is good at
transporting glycerin. Inside skin cells, aquaporin 3 and
phospholipase D interact. "We don't know if it's direct or if there is
an intervening protein, but they associate," Dr. Zheng says. They
theorize that aquaporin 3 funnels glycerol to phospholipase D,
resulting in phosphatidylglycerol, a lipid that appears to signal
enzymes involved in skin cell differentiation, Dr. Zheng says.

"We think the glycerol is serving as a substrate to allow the skin to
mature properly and, when you don't have enough glycerol in the skin,
cells don't mature properly and that is why you get
hyper-proliferative, thick skin," Dr. Bollag says.

"We think the glycerol is serving as a substrate to allow the skin to
mature properly and, when you don't have enough glycerol in the skin,
cells don't mature properly and that is why you get
hyper-proliferative, thick skin," Dr. Bollag says.

A mouse model for dry, flaky, unnaturally thick and slow-healing skin
recently developed by researchers at the University of California, San
Francisco, may help prove the Augusta researchers correct.

The genetically manipulated mice lack sufficient glycerol in their
skin because they are missing the gene responsible for aquaporin 3.
"That is why their levels of glycerol are reduced, because they don't
have that glycerol channel," Dr. Bollag says. The mouse research was
published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology about the same
time Drs. Bollag and Zheng were submitting their work. "We were
thinking, we know why this happens," Dr. Bollag says. Water-loving
glycerol couldn't get inside the phospholipase D cell without a
channel. Consequently, the phosphatidylglycerol that results from
their union doesn't happen and neither does the resulting signal that
directs normal skin cell maturation.

Another naturally occurring mouse with dry, thick skin has aquaporin 3
but lacks skin fats that are normally broken down to release glycerol,
Dr. Bollag says.

When glycerol was given topically or orally to these animal models,
many of the skin problems resolved. Other water-attracting agents
didn't work so well, which gives the MCG researchers more fuel for
their finding that glycerol also plays a key role in normal skin cell
maturation and proliferation.

They hope their findings will not only contribute to a better
understanding of normal skin development but lead to more effective
treatment when development is abnormal.

"For instance, in psoriasis, you have keratinocytes (skin cells) that
grow too much and if we could somehow harness this signal, we might
somehow be able to tell those keratinocytes, ‘No. It's time to mature.
Stop growing. Mature and form good skin. Form this good barrier,'" Dr.
Bollag says. "Another instance in which you don't get normal
maturation of the keratinocytes is in skin cancer, the non-melanoma
skin cancers. So here is another way that if we could potentially
harness this signaling pathway, we could maybe bypass the signal that
basically makes them cancer and tell them, ‘No. Mature and form skin
and that's it. Don't become a cancer,'" says Dr. Bollag.

The MCG researcher has submitted a grant application to the National
Institutes of Health to further study the signaling mechanism she and
Dr. Zheng have found. The NIH supported her current studies as well.

"(Now we are) trying to find out what the signal activates," she says.
"In other words, how does the signal that is produced by phospholipase
D and the glycerol actually tell the cell to mature? How does that
signal then activate certain enzymes and proteins in the cell to make
the cell mature? Other things we are interested in looking at are ways
to manipulate the system, for instance to increase signal formation,
to see if we can then increase keratinocyte formation and that would
potentially be a way to harness the system to treat skin diseases."

A video also accompanies this article - Click on the following link to
view it:

http://www.mcg.edu/news/2003NewsRel/glycerin.html

Cheers

Colin

ckingley

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2
22nd June 04:36

jxstern

External User

Posts: 1

Glycerin Therapy For Psoriasis

....

Interesting. Some of the prepared moisterizers add some waxes and
stuff that makes it easier to keep in place, but the idea that the
glycerin actually participates in the skin's metabolism may explain
why, say, Curel is after all better than straight vaseline.

J.

jxstern

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3
22nd June 04:37

ranhub11

External User

Posts: 1

Glycerin Therapy For Psoriasis

[snip]

Hi Colin (Aussie guy),

What surf breaks down under? Any on searchable web pages?

The beach down the street has a web cam so surfers can surf
the surf before they hit the beach in my town.

Thanks for the EXLNT post again! Right next to the
WG one. <G>

We hit on it,
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=glycerin+psoriasis&btnG=Search&meta=

A few times in the past. Try the "P News" thread.

And for your info, i felt it was a coP out when Dr. Chris
put glycerin into his Wheatgrass spray. I almost went for the
fresh Wheat grass option untill i realized the hassle's of getting
it day in and day out, again! From my local Co-op down the street.

I did the WG trip in the early 80's. But consumed the majority
of it orally and for the most part neglected to use it topically.
Wasn't much into topicals then as now, till the WG at least.
(note-- one of the only topicals i feel very strongly about is
imiquimod for the Th2 condition called cancer. Some skin cancers
respond well to it. Thats a good thing.)

The topical clearing i did receive from the early 80's trials,
i ascribed to the internal 2 or so oz.s a day i consumed for
six months or so back then.

Little did i know that the clearing i received back then
had anything to do with the small amount i used topically.
At the time i was also on a macrobiotic diet that worked
very much like pagano's low AA and spice diet.

But after trying DMSO and glycerin back then plus a million
other things in as many combo's, i felt that all topicals were
a waste of time. Yes, been there done that and felt much like
you do now aussie guy.

At least till i read a few things on Th1/2 topical modulators
on the net. And while i've got a few theories on WG as such.
I'm as happy with it as can be without the exact science on it
nailed down.

Say aussie guy, can i spring for a bottle or two for you?

So you can compare it to your glycerin program?

Just to see what you think! And feel and see!

If it does half as much for you as Chuck and i you may
be happy with it. ,-/

Btw, the main thrust of my program is rebuilding gut
flora with probiotic whey. And i didn't think Chuck
would respond nearly as well as i. Being on a program
that had already taken my psoriasis down 70-90%.